Google + Salesforce = Microsoft + Yahoo?

The buzz about salesforce.com's integration of Google apps into its platform has gotten people thinking about the value of a potential merger. 

Google thinks big. Salesforce thinks big. Both companies have cultures imbued with the concept of "network returns" and "wisdom of crowds". (Google leverages it in different ways, largely through analytics. Salesforce leverages it in their application programming interface and code exchange architecture.)

My first thought was that Google's brand offer is broader than sf.com's and so the Google brand wouldn't be made "bigger" by such a merger. Microsoft needs a company like Yahoo. Yahoo definitely needs a company like Microsoft. The complementarity in culture and market is really strong for them, and makes both brands bigger.

The key rationale I could see for the Google/sf merger: Google might feel it could use some of sf.com's software/platform. If Google feels it can win 18 months of development time by not reproducing what sf.com already does, then the merger might in fact help Google in the broader business application market. Certainly I think Google would be better off throwing programming resources to improve/use an existing platform such as sf.com's, than building another one themselves. 

So, this may not be an issue of brand-building. If Google and sf.com get together, it would be more about winning time-to-market as Google goes after the broader business market. They might want a piece of software-as-a-service CRM (sf.com's sweet spot), but that may just be secondary.

Which begs the question: If they merge -- as opposed to being merely tightly integrated partners -- can the salesforce.com brand flourish? What do they get from such a merger? I gotta say, they're doing OK on the web app platform side. Growth is good. Brand is strong.

About the ONLY rationales I could come up with: mobile computing, and global market strengthening. 

Which leads us, inevitably, to China and India. And to Shirley Young, who's on the sf.com board. Her experience in Asia-Pacific is outstanding. Her Fortune 500 experience is strong. She's also on the board of TeleTech Holdings, a customer management company with strong business process outsourcing revenues. The question I'd want to explore: Is she, like so many others recently, in the conversation about China becoming a stronger target country for sales, as opposed to merely an outsourcing market? Shirley's profile in China-USA cultural relations is strong. She worked on GM's strategy in China (a hybrid of labor arbitrage and target market strategies). 

I can't help but think that sf.com wants half a billion new seat licenses.